In the company of young artists, my own passion for the theatre is continually reinvigorated, clarifying my own ideas about its purpose and value. Beyond simple entertainment, I teach that theatre is a means to build community, to open minds, and to contribute to positive social change.
My general approach to teaching is partly inspired by an assertion from theatre director and teacher Anne Bogart, who writes in her book A Director Prepares that “…you cannot create results. You can only create conditions in which something might happen.” While she is referring primarily to theatre directing, I have adopted this same philosophy as a core tenet of my teaching. Rather than attempting to “create results,” I focus on creating conditions under which learning can happen.
Specifically, I structure studio acting and directing classes at the intersection of theory and practice. While steeped in the foundational work of action-based technique (Stanislavski and those he inspired), I also recognize many of the most influential theatre makers of the 20th and 21st Centuries are primarily known for their re-examination of the form. Brecht’s distancing techniques, Artaud’s “Theatre of Cruelty,” Grotowski’s “poor theatre,” Anne Bogart’s “Viewpoints,” Freddie Hendricks’s “Hyper-Ego,” and Kari Margolis’s “Margolis Method” all arose from dissatisfaction with the limitations of psychological realism. Using action-based theory as a foundation, I explore with my students how it intersects with other approaches, broadening the scope of what contemporary theatre can do, and who it can do it for.